Worst Case Scenario
by Sarah1281
Summary: Thor and Loki have resolved their differences and Loki returns to Asgard about as repentant as can be expected. Odin and Frigga are pleased by this but rather horrified that their sons have fallen in love with each other in the process. Non-Thor 2 compliant.


Worst Case Scenario

Frigga managed to remain smiling until her two sons had left the room but the moment the door shut behind them her happy façade fell and she was left staring after them in horror.

And she wasn't the only one.

"Where did we go wrong?" Odin wondered dazedly. "Was it when we lied to Loki about his parentage? I feel like that must have something to do with it. It certainly led to everything else."

"That probably had something to do with it," Frigga agreed. "Though if they had known that they were not blood kin growing up we may have had a similar situation."

"Still, the way he found out…he was never supposed to find out that way," Odin said. "And it drove him mad proving all my worst fears true and he suffered who knows what when he fell through the void and then he refused to just come home. Thor had to go chasing after him and I'm sure it would take a great deal to convince him to come back after everything, Loki always was so prideful, but I would have thought that Thor at least would have more sense!"

"May I remind you that Thor's sense was what almost brought us to war with Jotunheim," Frigga said pointedly.

Odin winced. "Well, yes, but I thought he had gotten all straightened out after his banishment to Earth!"

"He was gone for three days," Frigga replied. "Even if he were a short-lived mortal, do you really expect that he could change so completely in such a short amount of time? Don't get me wrong, I was against the banishment all along but you're expecting a little much from it even if you also add in his reaction to Loki's fall."

Odin put his head in his hands. "What are we going to do?"

Frigga shook her head helplessly. "I wish that I knew."

"We have to stop them."

"I don't think that we can," Frigga said.

Odin got that look in his eye that he always did whenever someone doubted that he was capable of doing something.

"I don't mean that you couldn't physically force them apart and keep them apart for a good long time if not forever," Frigga was quick to clarify. "Just that I don't think that would do any good. Loki is still resentful about so very many things."

"And what would you propose?" Odin demanded. "That we go and let our sons continue to-to _fornicate_ because we don't want to upset them."

"As upsetting as such a prospect is, they are adults. Is it really any of our business?"

"I'm the king of Asgard and their father," Odin answered. "I'm pretty sure that one or both of those things makes it my business. I could just command Thor to stop it. Even if that would only encourage Loki, I'm sure Thor would listen to me."

"Like he listened to you when you told him to become king?" Frigga asked rhetorically.

"He did not _technically _defy me," Odin said.

"No, he just made it clear that he was going back down to Earth and that it didn't matter what you said about Jane because he wasn't going to be king and you decided that he was serious and so you weren't going to put him in a situation where he would need to openly defy you."

"He didn't say that he was going to go be with Jane Foster no matter what I said about that, though," Odin pointed out. "Whatever happened to her anyway? She seemed like such a lovely girl."

Frigga stared at him. "You hate her."

"Hated, my dear, past tense," Odin corrected. "That was all before I discovered what Thor's other choice of romantic partner was. She's no Sif, granted, and she's not even of Asgard but at least she isn't Thor's brother!"

"I do not know and I'm sure Thor will be much offended and see right through us if we try to ask right now," Frigga said. "Clearly he would rather be with Loki than with Jane Foster."

"But what if there was some dreadful misunderstanding and it could all be fixed!"

"Then I think Thor has still moved on to another relationship," Frigga said.

"Or what if she died! She's human so she probably has by now," Odin reasoned. "We could see if we could bring her back to life."

"You realize that it's extraordinary difficult at the best of times for the best of reasons to retrieve a moral from Hel," Frigga told him. "I don't think that trying to control Thor's love life is going to impress anyone."

"But he's _dating his brother_," Odin protested.

"And when we explain the situation they'll probably want to know where we went wrong as parents as well and not want to defy the natural laws to help us fix it. Besides, we don't even know if it would work and Thor seems far too cheerful for Jane Foster to have died and devastated him enough that he would quickly resume their relationship should she live."

Odin sighed. "I suppose you are right. And the bigger concern is Loki anyway. If Loki wished to end the relationship and Thor did not then we could at least count on him not to go evil and try to destroy us and I'm sorry to say that I really do not feel comfortable making that same sort of claim about our other son."

"No, Loki's certainly the one with the history," Frigga agreed.

"But who could we possibly get Loki to be interested in that isn't Thor?" Odin wondered.

They were quiet for awhile as both of them tried frantically to think.

"I suppose Jane Foster is out of the question?"

Frigga fought down the uncharacteristic impulse to roll her eyes. "Yes, Jane Foster is out of the question. We don't know what happened between her and Thor but we most certainly cannot use Thor's former love to break Thor's heart by having her pair off with his brother."

"But they have so much in common!" Odin said.

Frigga raised an eyebrow.

"They're both…very smart," Odin said a little lamely. "And they…well…I did only meet her the one time. But what about that friend of hers?"

"Who we have never actually met," Frigga pointed out.

"But she is not related to our son so that makes her better by default than current prospects," Odin replied. "Think of how perfect it would be if Jane Foster were with Thor and her friend was with Loki!"

"Do you even know her name?" Frigga asked.

"…I do not," Odin conceded. "But she seems nice."

"I'm sure literally any female or male who is not Thor seems nice," Frigga said tolerantly.

"I would be willing to concede that, if Thor still refuses to see that Sif is perfect for him, she and Loki could be good together. As I've often said, Sif and Thor are a lot alike so if Loki likes people like Thor then she would be a good non-incestuous substitute for him," Odin reasoned. "They complement each other quite nicely. Any possible upsides you could see to Thor and Loki being together are matched by Sif and Loki being together except that it isn't disgusting."

"Well, we do at least know her and I've often wished that she could be my own daughter since I've only been blessed with sons," Frigga mused. She shook herself. "But we cannot just dictate who our sons should be with."

"I don't think I really _care _who they are with at this point as long as it's not each other," Odin admitted. "Whatever happened to that one girl that Loki mentioned taking a fancy to that one time? Sigyn was it?"

"There is no Sigyn," Frigga said gently.

Odin's brow furrowed. "No, no, I distinctly remember Loki telling me all about her. She was blonde and very loyal."

"He made her up because you kept talking about how perfect Sif was for Thor and you weren't interested in who Loki was with. He didn't want you to think that he was incapable of finding love," Frigga explained.

"Oh, they're young. I figured they had time. It wasn't that I was overly concerned with Thor's love life but Thor and Sif were just so perfect for each other!" Odin exclaimed. He coughed. "Assuming she does not decide to sensibly date Loki instead and put an end to this madness."

"If Loki catches wind that you're implying that it would be Sif's duty to date him you know that will take the already slight possibility of that happening and destroy it," Frigga warned.

Odin nodded. "You're right, of course. We'll have to keep this quiet. But why would Loki just go and invent a woman instead of pretending to like someone else? Or actually finding someone? Whatever feelings he may have had of not fitting in, he is a prince of Asgard. Surely he could find _somebody_."

"I don't think he actually wanted to be with somebody, he just wanted you to think that he was so this way there was no inconvenience on his part," Frigga told him.

"Loki's prospects do not appear all that promising," Odin said mournfully.

"I'm not sure he'll agree. He seems to be happy."

"Yes but with his _brother_. And it's not like they even decided they weren't brothers now that they find that they are not blood kin. They kept calling each other brother the entire time they were explaining their new relationship to us!" Odin complained.

"I suppose that after all these centuries of constantly referring to each other as brothers it is a habit not so easily broken," Frigga said uncertainly.

"Yet apparently they can easily not think of each other as brothers anymore," Odin muttered darkly. "Or at least I hope they are not so depraved that they still do consider each other family and would still do this. I wonder if they refer to each other as brothers while engaging in these vile acts. No, way, I take that back. I do not wonder it at all and you shouldn't either."

Frigga felt nauseous. "I _wasn't_."

"We have to do something. This cannot be allowed to continue."

"If Thor is apt to see through any attempts to match make to destroy his relationship with Loki then you must know that Loki is ten times more likely to see that. He may see it even if we do not decide to do that," Frigga pointed out. "And neither will react well to it."

"But we must do _something_."

"What can we do? I'm sure that the both of them have thought long and hard about what they are doing and may have even discussed it. This is what they want anyway and I can only hope that if they were blood kin they would not be doing this though I do admit it gives me a sense that they do not value our family as much as they would have if I had borne Loki as well," Frigga admitted.

"Clearly neither of them have been thinking," Odin fumed. "Or at least Thor hasn't been. Loki might just be doing this to spite me."

"If the two of you would stop thinking the other is acting to spite them then this feud would be healed a lot faster," Frigga said tiredly.

"If he wouldn't get involved with his brother it would be over already!"

"It might not last," Frigga offered. "We have thousands of years left in our lives. Just because Loki and Thor wish to be together now after they had both believed the other lost to them forever does not mean that this will always be the case. Many relationships among our kind fizzle out. We all believed that even should he remain with the mortal Jane Foster for the rest of her life he would mourn her and recover in time. We are not a people to waste away from a lost life or to have no possibility of love save a first love."

Odin was not so easily appeased. "But even then we have the fact that it happened at all."

"Even if you could order them to cease this behavior at once and they did it would have still happened."

Odin slumped. "I know and it is maddening. Even if they realize the foolishness of this endeavor and try to go back to before they'll always have that between them. But at least it would be a short affair if it were to end now. How long must we endure this until it does?"

"Loki will probably take any sign of our displeasure as evidence we do not really love him or see him as Thor's equal and that we do not think a Frost Giant deserves to sit on the throne of Asgard," Frigga noted.

"Which is ridiculous because if that whole mishap with the attempted destruction of Jotunheim and Loki's subsequent activities had never happened then I could have just given Loki the throne, at least on a provisional basis, when Thor refused it not long ago. I don't know how much more obvious I can be about the fact that I do not wish to remain on the throne of Asgard," Odin complained.

Frigga took his hand and gave him a small smile. "I know, my love, I know. Take heart. In time the burden of the throne shall be lifted from your shoulders."

"They always used to compete over it when they were younger and now neither of them is in a state to take it," Odin continued, shaking his head in bemusement.

"We cannot move against them openly. It will only hurt them and perhaps drive them from us and you know it will make Loki that much more determined to never let go of this relationship even if it falls apart on him. And if this breaks his heart…well I can just imagine how well he will handle it and even if he does not fall to evil again I fear he will be lost to us. Surely that would be worse than what we are facing right now," Frigga said, willing herself to be convinced by her own words. She could not lose them again, either of them, but this state of affairs was just so painful to her.

"There must be something," Odin said again but he sounded a lot less sure than before.

"I don't think there is."

"They just woke up one day and decided that they were in love?" Odin asked helplessly. "Or worse, they've been harboring those feelings all along and only refrained from acting on them because they thought they were blood?"

"I don't know what to tell you. I am not any more pleased about the fact that our sons have decided that they are in love than you are."

"I'm going to have nightmares about this," Odin said. "About Thor going down to Midgard to find him, brave and determined, and entreating Loki to come back and Loki refusing because he thinks that he was always and outcast and we never cared for him and Thor pointing out that that wasn't true at all and then Loki getting angry and trying to make Thor leave and give up on him so he kissed him but to his surprise Thor didn't push him away but kissed him back and then they crossed a line that never should have been crossed."

"That's oddly specific," Frigga said, blinking.

"I'm a bit of a precognizant," Odin said modestly.

"I'd rather not think too hard about how it happened on my part but we cannot undo it."

"So we just allow it," Odin said grimly.

Frigga nodded reluctantly. "I don't think we have a choice. Or at least we don't have a better one."

"Now I _really _want to retire."


End file.
